"Boss, the little girl is freaking me out…" Thug A said skittishly as they stood about their hideout.

It had been a big day for the gang, they had robbed a bank but they had lost their get away driver (more like he never showed up) and they were forced to steal a car from the park across the street which just so happened to have the little girl in it, Boss had shrugged and grinned to his three accomplices "Ransom money bitches!"

They had hooped and hollered the entire way back to their base which was an abandoned warehouse in the mostly desolate portion of town. The girl hadn't seemed to disturbed, faintly put off by their sweaty stench and loudness, but not scared. They had also zip tied her hands and feet together, she barely resisted and didn't speak the entire time.

He had thought it was because she was so scared but turning to Thug A he got a different answer "What is it?"

"You need to hear this…" he trailed off ominously.

They approached the girl, who they had dumped into the corner, Thug B and Thug C were visibly frightened. She made eye contact with Boss and said very calmly "My mother is coming to kick your ass."

"What makes you say that little missy?" he snapped with a voice filled with sarcasm.

The brown eyes seemed to flare orange for a moment before she smiled to widely that it crinkled her eyes "She's already on her way."

Thug C, always the superstitious one-always has been, well since elementary, started whispering under his breath. Boss rolled his eyes "Cut the mumbo-jumbo bullshit. You're here until we either dump your body somewhere or we find you mysterious mommy and get her to pay us a shit ton of money so her little princess comes home in one piece, capiche?"

The girl let off a litany of Italian before Thug B, seriously creeped out hissed "What sort of idiot teaches her daughter Italian here in Japan?"

The girl crinkled her, admittedly cute, button nose before forcibly setting her face into an emotionless mask that put her delicate bone structure on display "Because my family spends a lot of time in Italy."

Boss's smile lit up his nondescript face "Boys! Lots of time in Italy means travel and travel means money!"

The Thug Brothers let out nervous laughter at that. It broke the tension more easily than they thought and it allowed them to go about doing what they were supposed to. Thug A, the oldest of the brothers, settled into the chair set a few feet away from the little girl. It only took a minute before he sighed "Stand up."

She complied but asked "Why?"

He rubbed his face before tossing a ragged cushion on the ground "The ground's hard and cold and you might get cut on something. I ain't a nice guy but I ain't that mean either."

She sat back down and stared at him for a minute "Thank you." well at least she had manners. And the fluffiest brown hair he had ever seen.

Ten minutes later Thug A had a question for Boss and snagged his youngest brother "Hey, Thug C. Watch her for a minute, I gotta ask Boss a question."

"What question?" asked the brother dully.

"How are we supposed to get a ransom if we have no idea who her parents are?" in his voice there was something that both the girl and Thug C caught, an almost reluctance to hold her hostage.

"Alright, go ask him." Thug C agreed as he took his brother's vacated chair and sighed deeply. Watching the girl wasn't exciting and she was rather quiet now that her piece had been said.

Checking his watch frequently Thug C finally had to do something, the boredom was killing him "Little missy, what's your name?"

"Stella." she said quietly before she shivered.

Immediately Thug C got up and went to a mostly intact metal cabinet before pulling out a blanket and wrapping it around her thin shoulders. When she tried to thank him he waved her off uncomfortably "Look, we didn't mean to kidnap you, the absolute least we can do is make sure you're comfortable."

She looked at him oddly, something he accepted before he grunted and turned to Thug B "C'mere for a second."

The middle brother came over with a gruff "What?"

"I know Thug A was talking to Boss about something," they both looked over to the far end of the building where Thug A and Boss were talking "But I really have ta'-" he stopped and looked at Stella before "use the restroom."

Glancing at his younger brother Thug B nodded "I can watch her." and as soon as his brother left the chair he took it, rubbing his eyes he muttered to himself before looking at Stella "Little girl?" he asked "Sorry about this…if our get away driver had shown up this wouldn't have happened." he approached her and took out a knife causing Stella to flinch "Whoa!" he said as he stopped and held up his hands "Not gonna do nothin' just wanna take off your zip ties."

Hesitantly she held out her bound hands, and true to his word, Thug B sliced through the plastic as carefully as he could. For the third time this afternoon she said "Thank you." to one of the brothers.

He gave a slightly twitchy smile before confessing "I don't want nothin' bad to happen to ya."

Several minutes of silence later Thug A, Thug C, and Boss came back. Thug B glanced up before looking at Thug A then the cushion pointedly, then Thug C and the blanket in the same fashion. Boss didn't notice before he crouched in front of the girl "Alright, here's what's going on, you're gonna tell us your mom's name and where we can call her."

Stella looked at him confused "I already told you she's on her way."

Boss growled "I'm serious here you little brat."

The girl looked back at him "So am I." she barely got the last syllable out before Boss slapped her hard enough that she fell over.

The brother's let out a gasp but didn't move though they grit their teeth hard enough to be heard. "Listen here little bitch, if I don't get answers I may just leave your darling mommy a trail of severed fingers and toes to follow." Stella looked down and Boss growled before turning to the trio "I'll be in the office counting the loot."

As soon as the door shut the trio huddled together "We've got to get her out of here, I don't like how Boss is acting." Thug A started.

Thug B nodded "Right, but we can't take the car, too loud." he turned to Thug C "How long do you think he's gonna take to count all of the loot?"

Scratching his head Thug C guessed "Probably hour an' a half ta two? Even after he counts it he'll wanna go through it again."

"Do ya think we could drop her back off at the park 'n be back before he's through?" Thug B worried.

Then came a question Stella had been wondering since she found herself in this predicament "Why are you guys doing this if you're so uncomfortable with it?"

The Thug brothers turned to her before Thug A sighed heavily and flopped onto the chair that wobbled precariously "Because we're dirt poor." he clenched his fist before it loosened in defeat "As cliché as it sounds we do have a little sister who's really sick in the hospital but we can't afford to pay for much longer and we just got fired…"

Before things could go further Thug B offered her his hand "C'mon Stella, we gotta go before Boss finishes. Let's get you home."

She took his hand and hissed as the smile that lit her face pulled on the now darkening bruise. Thug C whined before opening a small side door. The three men put on their fiercest looks and moved to keep Stella in the middle of them.

Until they stepped outside.

"Fuck!-Shit!-Sorry!" came in quick succession as Thug A took in their position, the first exclamation was at their situation, the second came at the expletive he had been trying to avoid using and the third was directed at Stella who had to hear those words from him.

Around them were men in women in immaculate suits that looked ready to slaughter the trio.

Thug B stepped forward and put up his fists shakily "Y-You guys don't look like no cops."

"If you take her home safe and sound you can do whatever you want with me." Thug C said bravely.

At this point Stella peeked her head around before running out from between the brothers who gave out a cry as she ran towards the man in the middle of their ring.

The man immediately dropped to his knees, disregarding the filthy ground on his suit, and opened his arms. Running headlong in she cried out "Daddy!"

A woman appeared from nowhere, her dark purple hair flowing down her back and fluttering in the wind, just to the left of the man and the group embraced tightly and everyone looked away from such a personal moment. The woman kept whispering "Oh my baby…" while the man echoed the words.

A moment later such killer intent spiked that even the Arcobaleno, grown and also wearing suits, were shocked. Unbuttoning his cuffs, the girl's Father said in a silken voice "May I ask who…" rolling ones sleeves to mid arm should not be that terrifying "decided to bruise my little girl?"

The mother was as deadly as her calm smile was icy cold and projected the image of Satan torturing sinners, everyone around them was almost as angry at the trio but it was Stella who came to their rescue "Daddy, these are good bad guys!"

A man with exceptionally curly sideburns "What do you mean Principessa?"

"Uncle Reborn, what's the one reason you told me that is above all others?"

The assassin stared at her for a moment "Family."

She explained the situation as the Thug brothers were quietly trying to breath, there was so much pressure exerted by this group that it made the task nearly impossible and it wasn't even directed at them. Reborn. Hit-man. Even people not from the underworld like them had heard about him. There was rumor that he served "The God of the Underworld."

Shit.

Thug C took a breath "Whatever you do to us, I just ask that you don't hurt our little sister."

The woman they were now calling "The Goddess of the Underworld" asked icily "Name?"

Thug A answered "Civilian One."

The Father stepped forward "I am Vongola Decimo, NeoVongola Primo…Tsunayoshi Sawada. However, if you agree to my terms you may live to call me something else." his voice both put them at ease but warned that disagreeing might not be good for their health.

Thug A, their official spokesman asked "W-What would that be, S-sir?"

"Boss." everyone watched, besides the Thug Brothers everyone was aware this was semi-standard "Stella likes you so I would offer you a job…and your sister once she's recovered."

They immediately agreed.

Their new boss smiled "But before that I have the small matter of the man who hit my daughter to deal with."

The Thug brothers were hustled off by Reborn and a man with silver hair that was smoking before they could ask anything else.

By the car a rather rotund man was pacing back and forth, when he saw Stella he cried out "Principessa! I'm so sorry!"

As she was scooped up in a hug she told him "It's okay Giannini, things turned out okay."

As they were escorted into the car with the fat man, their keepers and Stella the story was told. They couldn't help but wonder what sort of celestial joke they had just become a part of.

Giannini had become a babysitter for a day when an emergency meeting was called between three allied famiglias and the Arcobaleno were needed as well. The only one who was free to take the children, Stella and her twin baby brothers, to Nana's house was the weapons tuner. When one of her brothers had dirtied his diaper Giannini had gone to the park's bathroom to clean him up just before the car was stolen.

Only moments later the entire famiglia was up in arms ready to kill whoever touched their princess.

The brothers were more than happy that they hadn't really been going along with the whole ransom thing.

Well, their new jobs would cover it anyways.

Chrome smiled as she watched her two boys run around Mama's backyard She leaned into Tsuna who pecked her temple lightly and wrapped his arm around her waist. The past few hours had been horrendous but they had paid off.

She had looked thoroughly into the trio who now sat warily with Mama at the picnic table, they had dedicated everything they had to making money for their sister, something she greatly approved of, and they had taken every job they could get their hands on to try to help pay. Their latest job had been working as construction worker but when the financial backer had pulled out they had been suddenly laid off, as horrible as it was she was glad to have people that dedicated to family working for them.

Their sister was being treated by the best Sun doctors available, Shamal being the lead. The doctor had been livid that the girl had been as sick as she had, apparently her illness was a breeze for anyone with an active sun flame to heal.

Mama had taken to the Thug brothers extremely well and they treated her with the utmost respect, they hadn't been told who she was, so this was more a showing of their own character. They were also keeping a constant eye on Stella, if nothing else they were more and more enamored with the little girl.

Stella, who was sitting in her mom's lap, looked up "Can we keep them?"

Tsuna kissed the top of her head "Not our choice Stella."

Unfortunately Stella's big eyes and quivering lips didn't work on her dad.

They worked on the quartet though.